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The Voiage and Travayle of Sir John Maundeville Knight / Which treateth of the way towards Hierusalem and of marvayles of Inde with other ilands and countreys cover

The Voiage and Travayle of Sir John Maundeville Knight / Which treateth of the way towards Hierusalem and of marvayles of Inde with other ilands and countreys

Chapter 77: CAP. LXIX.
By Sir John Mandeville
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About This Book

The narrator offers a medieval travelogue that traces routes toward Jerusalem and across regions of Asia, Africa, and India, blending eyewitness-style observations, borrowed reports, and fantastic tales. It catalogs cities, landscapes, animals, plants, trade goods, and unfamiliar customs, alternating itinerary notes with moral and religious commentary. Frequent digressions present marvels and monstrous races alongside practical details about pilgrim routes, local rites, and fortifications, producing a text that shifts between guidebook information and imaginative storytelling. The structure mixes descriptive chapters with episodic anecdotes, inviting readers to weigh veracity while encountering the era's geographical knowledge, commerce, and popular curiosities.

CAP. LXIX.

How the great Caane was hid under a tree, and so escaped his enimies bicause of a byrd.

AND it befell on a day that the Caane rode with a fewe men to see the lande that he had wonne, and he met with a greate multitude of his enimies and there he was caste downe of his horse, and his horse slayne, and when his men saw him at ye earth1 they went2 he had been deade, and fledde, & the ennimies folowed after, and when he sawe his ennimies were fer,3 he hid him in a bushe, for the wod was thicke there, and when they were come againe from the chace, they went to seke among the wood if any were hid there, and they founde many, and as they came to the place where he was, they saw a birde sitte uppon a tree, the which byrd men call an Oule, and then sayd they, that there was no man, for the birde sat there, and so went they away, and thus was the Caane saved from death, & so he went awaye on a night to his owne men, which were glad of his comming, and from that time hitherwardes men of that countrey haue that byrde in great reverence, and for that cause they worship that byrd aboue all other birds of the worlde. And incontinent he assembled all his men, rode uppon his enimies and destroyed them, and when he had won all the landes that were aboute him, he helde them in subjection. And when the Caane had won all the lordes to mounte Belyan, the white knighte came to him in a vision againe, and said unto him, Caan the will of God is, that thou passe the mounte Belyan, and thou shalt win many landes, and for thou shalt find no passage, go thou to mount Belian that is upon the sea side and knele ix times thereon against the east in the worship of God, & he shall shew thee a way how thou shalt passe, and Caan did so, & anon the sea that touched the hil, withdrew him, & shewed him a faire way of ix foote brode betwene the hill and the sea, & so he passed right wel with al his men, & then he wan the land of Cathay that is the best land and the greatest of all the worlde, and for those ix knelings and the ix foote of way, Caane and the men of Tartary have the number of ix in great worship.

1:  On the ground.

2:  Weened—supposed, imagined.

3:  Far away.